Daniel García Ordaz

Poet

Author's Bio

TEDx Speaker Daniel García Ordaz, a.k.a. The Poet Mariachi, served as the 2023 and 2024-2025 McAllen Poet Laureate. His work has been taught and written about by academics across the U.S. and abroad and he is a 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee. García earned an MFA in Creative Writing, a terminal degree, from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He is also an educator and part of the dual enrollment faculty at South Texas College. García  is a songwriter, former journalist, photographicationisticator, and word-maker-upper. García appears in the documentary, "ALTAR: Cruzando fronteras/Building bridges." He is the founder of the Rio Grande Valley Int'l. Poetry Festival. García served in the U.S. Navy as a Hospital Corpsman. His individual book titles include the #1 bestseller books You Know What I'm Sayin'? and Cenzontle/Mockingbird: Songs of Empowerment (and its YA version), as well his latest bestseller, Read Until You Bleed: Funny and Thoughtful Poems For Funny and Thoughtful Children, a children's book. García's work has appeared in several journals and anthologies.

Education: 
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley MFA

Publications & Prizes

Anthologies:
Anger Is A Gift (FlowerSong Press, 2025)
,
Fly Heroes (FlowerSong Press, 2023)
,
Asina Is How We Talk (FlowerSong Press, 2022)
,
Good Cop/Bad Cop (FlowerSong Press, 2021)
,
I SING: THE BODY (Poems About Body Image) (FlowerSong Press, 2021)
,
Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican In America (Penguin Random House, 2021)
,
Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century (Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, 2020)
,
Poetry of Resistance: Voices For Social Justice (University of Arizona Press, 2016)
,
Twenty: In Memoriam (El Zarape Press , 2014)
,
Juventud! Growing up on the Border: Stories and Poems (VAO Publishing, 2013)
Books:
Read Until You Bleed: Funny and Thoughtful Poetry For Funny and Thoughtful Children (El Zarape Press , 2023)
,
Cenzontle/Mockingbird (YA Edition): Songs of Empowerment (El Zarape Press , 2018)
,
Cenzontle/Mockingbird: Songs of Empowerment: Poetry * Drama (FlowerSong Press, 2018)
,
You Know What I'm Sayin'? (El Zarape Press , 2006)
Journals:
Encore
,
Gallery Magazine
,
Harbinger Asylum
,
Interstice
,
Left Hand of the Father
,
Mesquite Review
,
Praxis Online
Prizes won: 

1st Place (National Finalist,) Local Veterans Creative Arts Competition (Texas Valley Coastal Bend, Veterans Administration):“On Our Way To Mars” (2025--Non-Rhyming Poetry, General)

1st Place (National Finalist), Local Veterans Creative Arts Competition (Texas Valley Coastal Bend, Veterans Administration):“This American Amalgamation” (2025--Non-Rhyming Poetry, Inspirational)

2nd Place (National Finalist), Local Veterans Creative Arts Competition (Texas Valley Coastal Bend, Veterans Administration):“We Shall Not Be Broken” (2025--Rhyming Poetry, Inspirational)

2023 and 2024-2025 McAllen Poet Laureate, City of McAllen, Texas (2023; 2024)

6th Honorable Mention, National Federation of State Poetry Societies Contest, Annual Convention: “She/Her” (2021)

Artist of the Month, Art Spark Texas (October 2020)

3rd Place, Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Division 1 Spanish Feature Story: "Romeo y Julieta y Que?" (2017)

Winner, Maya Angelou Essay Contest, The University of Texas-Pan American (2011)

Watch

Personal Favorites

Favorite authors: 
Lloyd Alexander Langston Hughes Maya Angelou Gloria E. Anzaldúa Walter Wangerin, Jr. Pablo Neruda Walt Whitman Robert Frost Zora Neale Hurston Alice Walker Virginia Woolf

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
American, Hispanic, Latino/Latina/Latinx, Mexican
Prefers to work with: 
Adults, At Risk Youth, Children, Naturalists/Environmentalists, Teachers, Teenagers, Veterans
Fluent in: 
English, Spanish
Born in: 
Houston, TX
Texas
Raised in: 
Mission, TX
Texas
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Sep 13, 2025